This invention relates to household refrigerators and in particular to the cabinet assembly for a refrigerator having a freezer compartment on top, a fresh food compartment on the bottom, and incorporating the hot liquid anti-sweat loop.
It is common practice in the manufacture of household refrigerators to incorporate corner braces for the outer metal shell to reinforce the metal shell and give it strength in those areas where the door hinges are to be secured to the outer metal shell. Moreover, these corner braces give support to the outer metal shell during manufacturing assembly of the refrigerator especially when the outer metal shell is formed from very thin sheet metal and it needs to be carried on a conveyor through the assembly line.
The refrigeration system of a household refrigerator includes a compressor, condenser and evaporator wherein refrigerant is compressed by the compressor to produce hot gas which is pumped to the condenser. The condenser turns the gas to liquid which subsequently passes through the liquid line and a capillary tube to the evaporator where heat from inside the refrigerator is used to boil the liquid in the evaporator and the resultant gas is then returned to the compressor by the suction line.
It is normal for refrigerators and particularly the freezer compartment of the refrigerators to have some small amount of cold air leakage and/or normal conduction through the gasket sealing the access door to the freezer compartment and that small amount of leakage can cause the front face to be cold. Condensation results around the face of the freezer compartment when warm humid room ambient air comes in contact with the cold surface. It is common to use an anti-sweat heater to warm the area around the front face of the freezer compartment so that condensation is minimized. Often the heater is a part of the condenser and is referred to as the "anti-sweat loop".
The hot anti-sweat loop must be bent at right angles to fit in the top corners of the front face of the refrigerator and there needs to be a means to hold the anti-sweat loop in its proper position in those areas. One such way is to use the metal braces disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,735,062 assigned to the same assignee as the present invention. It will be noted from that patent that the braces are formed from rather heavy metal and are secured by separate fastening means such as metal stitching wherein the metal brace and the outer metal shell of the refrigerator cabinet are held together by having a section of each upset one within the other to provide an integral fastener formation. Such fastening means is well known in the art of fastening two metal panels together. One such metal fastening means known in the trade is LANCE-N-LOC or TOG-L-LOC and the equipment necessary for such a fastening operation is sold by BTM Corporation, Marysville, Mich. While such an assembly and fastening means is quite suitable, it does require rather expensive corner braces and equipment to perform the fastening means which entails an additional manufacturing assembly operation.
By this invention several advantages are obtained, one of which is that the brace may be secured to the outer metal shell without the need of separate fastening means such as metal stitching but rather the corner brace is merely snapped in place. In those refrigerators utilizing an anti-sweat loop the brace also includes means for positively retaining the anti-sweat loop in its proper position as it transitions around the top right angle corners in the front face of the refrigerator. Moreover, the brace may be formed of plastic material which is a substantial cost saving, yet accomplishes the rigidity needed for bracing the corners of refrigerators especially during manufacturing assembly of the refrigerators.